


First Son of Genosha

by winter_hiems



Category: Marvel (House of M), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Legacy
Genre: Alternate Universe - House of M, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Autistic David Haller, Canon Autistic Character, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Jewish Character, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Charles is a dad, Childhood Trauma, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Father-Son Relationship, Genosha, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Modern Royalty, Mother-Son Relationship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Royalty, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26025604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_hiems/pseuds/winter_hiems
Summary: After his father’s marriage to Erik Lehnsherr, David is struggling to adapt to the lifestyle of a prince of Genosha and his new family. Whilst hiding from the crowd at a gallery opening, he meets Ruth, a girl who feels just as out of place as he does. The two of them are happy together, but nothing is ever easy for a prince and little does David know that both his parents aren’t telling him something…
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Gabrielle Haller/Charles Xavier (past), Ruth Aldine/David Haller
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22





	1. Together, Part 1

Ruth wanted out of the party. She didn’t doubt that Rogue thought she was being a good aunt by getting her niece an invitation so such an exclusive event, but all Ruth wanted to do was hide. Everyone in the gallery was in tailored designer clothing, jewellery glittering at throat and wrist. Ruth wore a knee-length yellow dress she’d bought half-price and a matching yellow blindfold to hide her lack of eyes. Apart from Rogue she’d never met anyone here, but they’d got separated and the next time Ruth saw her she’d been flirting with Remy LeBeau. Ruth left them to it. 

She glanced across the room and saw King Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, also known as her headteacher’s husband. He was chatting to Carol Danvers. 

God, the people at this event were way too famous for her. 

Ruth darted around a few waiters and slipped out into the hallway. She needed air. Signs led her to a few flights of stairs, and she found herself at the door to a terrace. A sign on it read ‘STRICTLY NO ADMITTANCE’, but she ignored that and pushed her way out into the cool summer air. 

She wasn’t alone. A boy was on his hands and knees, shuddering and gasping for breath. Ruth knelt beside him, unsure of what to do, or what was even wrong. “Are you alright?” She silently cursed herself. Of course he wasn’t alright. 

The boy shook his head. “It’s too loud. It’s too. Bloody. Loud.” Ruth reached out to lay a hand on his back and he flinched away. “Don’t fucking touch me.” 

Ruth scooted back and tried another approach. She relaxed her mind and projected a sense of calm towards the boy. He must be a telepath too because his mind answered hers and soon they had a dialogue across the psychic plane. 

_THIS is what I’m feeling. It’s too loud. The people below. I can hear them moving. I can hear them talking. I can hear them thinking. I can hear them breathing._

_It will get better,_ she told him. _Try to focus on your breathing, your thoughts._

_My thoughts are the worst part of this._

_Then focus on mine._ She sent him images of the most mundane things she could think of. Simple things. Easy things. What she’d eaten for breakfast that day. Yesterday, when she’d bought herself new hand cream. How the tree across from Rogue’s apartment was losing its leaves. 

It took several minutes, but eventually his breathing evened out. He stood up slowly. “Thanks. That helped.” 

He turned, and Ruth found herself face-to-face with a prince. 

Not Prince Pietro, the speedster and only son of King Magnus. Nor was it either one of Princes Billy and Tommy, the mage and the _other_ speedster, twin sons of Princess Wanda. No, this was Prince David Haller, only child of Charles Xavier and according to the tabloids, completely and incorrigibly insane. 

She felt stupid that she’d missed it. With his finely tailored suit and long black hair pinned back with silver stars, he was every inch a royal. Now that he was calm his mind was so well-shielded that she could barely sense it; he’d inherited his father’s gift. 

He straightened his tie. “You’re one of dad’s students, right? Did he send you up to get me?” She caught a flash of his eyes – one blue, one green – before they flicked back to the floor again. It was obvious in the lines of his face that he was the professor’s son, but that wasn’t the only thing she saw in his face. She felt herself blush. He was completely her type. Like a younger, prettier version of 1995-era Nightwing. God, she hoped that he didn’t catch her thoughts about him. The last thing she needed was for this beautiful boy to realise how much of a nerd she was. 

“No – yes – I mean I am his student – thank you, no – but he didn’t send me up here, sorry. My name’s Ruth Aldine, thank you.” The shock made her stammer worse than ever. “I just wanted some air,” she finished lamely. 

“Me too. They offered me a quiet room if I got overwhelmed, but I’d rather be under the open sky, y’know? I don’t like feeling trapped.” 

“So that was what happened? Thank you – you got overwhelmed?” 

“Yeah. I’m autistic so when I’m stressed I hear everything, I see everything. Add that in with the personalities in my head and it gets pretty loud very quickly.” He sighed. “Please don’t tell my dad. This is meant to be my social debut where they roll me out to show off how well-adjusted I am these days. But then I hardly knew anyone and I was supposed to socialise with everyone, and it was too much, and I needed to get out.” 

Ruth went to sit on the terrace’s solitary stone bench. “I don’t know anyone – thank you – here either. Except Rogue. She’s my aunt.” 

“Wait. That makes you Irene Adler’s granddaughter or something, right?” 

Irene Adler, the seer from whom Ruth had inherited both her precognition and her blindness. “Great-granddaughter – sorry. But calling Rogue my great-aunt would seem really weird.” 

David sat beside her, leaving plenty of space between them on the bench. “I was there when she died. Irene. When the Shadow King killed her. I remember her bleeding out. I’m sorry to bring it up, but she gave me a message for you. Made it clear that I wasn’t to look for you, only tell you when we met naturally.” 

“Really? What did she say?” Ruth sat bold upright. Her great-grandmother had done everything for a reason. 

“I guess it’s one of those cryptic messages where it only makes sense to the person it’s meant for. She told me to tell you: ‘It’s this one. This one right here. That’s the one you want.’” He shrugged. “I hope that means something.” 

Ruth’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit.” She ran her hands through her hair, then stopped when she realised she was messing it up, because she definitely didn’t want David to see her with messy hair after that bombshell. “Shit. Oh shit.” 

“Does it mean something… bad?” David winced. “Sorry if I ruined your evening.” 

“No, I – wow. Sorry, no – it’s a lot to take in.” 

“What’s–” 

Ruth’s phone buzzed with a text from Rogue: **It’s getting late. Come find me so we can head home?**

“I’m sorry. I have – yes – to go.” She stood, and so did David. 

“You don’t need to apologise. And thanks, again, for earlier. That was nice of you.” 

“David – thank you – I’m going to do something crazy now.” 

“I do crazy things all the time. I promise I won’t judge.” He shot her a shy smile. 

Ruth’s heart was pounding. She didn’t know what to do but she knew she had to do something. In a moment of pure impulse she pulled him down by his tie and kissed him, full on the mouth. It was too sudden and unexpected for him to kiss back, and when she pulled away he was looking at her in shock, lips still slightly parted. 

Ruth fled for the stairwell. 

*

She sat in the passenger seat as Rogue drove them home, and all she could think about was how much she’d screwed up. Irene’s message had meant something special, and David had clearly been reliving something awful to tell it, but she’d panicked and ruined everything. 

She should have explained. She should have explained everything. 

Ruth had met her great-grandmother only twice. Once on a mission, and the second and final time at Irene’s cottage. They had sat at the small dining table and drunk tea. The conversation had ranged over many subjects, until Ruth had asked whether her Grandma Irene had really dated Mystique. Irene had smiled and said that they were in fact still together. 

She’s propped both hands on the top of her cane, fixed her sightless eyes on Ruth and said, “That woman is the love of my life. And no matter how many poor choices she makes, I know she’ll always come back to me. Sure, soulmates don’t exist, but that doesn’t stop there being people out there that are extremely compatible together. I made sure I met mine. That’s the fun thing about being a seer; you get to engineer the future a little.” 

Ruth had been twelve at the time, and dating had seemed like huge novelty. “Do you think I could do that? Have a – sorry – vision of who I’ll fall in love with best?” 

“I don’t know, dear. But let me tell you this: one day you may find yourself with a boy and you’ll realise: ‘It’s this one. This one right here. This is the one I want.’ And that will be that.” 

Irene’s message had come back to find her, from a prince no less, and she’d messed it up. She shouldn’t have kissed him. From what she knew, autistic people didn’t like unexpected physical contact, and she’d forced that on David because she’d been too scared to waste the moment. 

And who was she kidding? Beautiful princes didn’t fall for girls with no eyes who couldn’t get a sentence out without stammering. 

He probably never wanted to see her again. 

*

David flopped back on his bed, grinning like an idiot. 

That kiss. 

That _kiss._

Sure, he hadn’t gotten a chance to kiss her back, but it was the most romance he’d had in nearly two years. No way in hell was he going to regret that. 

Something pulled in his hair. He’d changed into sweatpants the second he got back to the palace, but he’d forgotten the eighteen diamond-studded silver stars braided into his hair. The jewellery had seemed ridiculously flashy to him, but Erik had insisted. In the end David had only agreed because he’d promised his dad that he’d try to make the whole Magneto-is-my-stepdad thing work. 

Unfortunately, over the course of the night his hair had gotten ruffled and it was going to take some work to get them out. While he picked at the tangles he chatted to his alters. 

Once, they’d made his life hell. Every second had been a nightmare, fighting off the split personalities for control of his body. These days things weren’t exactly easy, but the alters were more reasonable and even gave good advice sometimes. David hoped that today was one of those days. 

_“Okay, folks. Thoughts on that kiss?”_

_“You should have kissed her back,”_ said Cyndi, the alter who controlled his pyrokinesis. _“You should have done it with tongue. You should have done that and then had sex with her on the rooftop.”_

_“Okay, I’ve decided I’ll hear thoughts on the kiss from anyone except Cyndi.”_

Compass Rose the teleporter spoke up. _“You should see her again. You like her, so you should do something before she forgets about you. Get her flowers.”_

_“Okay. Good idea. Anyone else?”_

_“Romance is a neurochemical con job constructed by society in an attempt to forget that one is utterly alone in an uncaring universe.”_

David’s psychic form flicked Tyrannix the Abominoid in its green face. _“Fuck you, Ty.”_

_“DON’T CALL ME TY! I HAVE A NAME! A FULL NAME!”_

_“Yeah but it’s just so long. My subconscious should have come up with something shorter when it made you.”_

The Chronodon lumbered over and headbutted David’s psychic form in the shoulder. It was a powerful alter, a time-stopper, so he backed up cautiously. _“Look,”_ David told it, _“You’re a dinosaur with a clock for a face. I have no idea why you have an opinion on my love life.”_

The hands on its face whirred around until they stopped at seven minutes to midnight. David guessed it was about that time that Ruth had kissed him. 

He decided to take that as a sign of support. 

David set the last silver star on his bedside table. _“Yeah. I think I’ll try and see her again.”_

He fell asleep thinking of how Ruth’s lips had felt against his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Irene Adler, looking at severely traumatised twelve-year-old David on Muir Island: “Wow, one day he is going to be perfect boyfriend material for Ruth.”
> 
> Irene setting the two of them up with a prophecy is a parallel to Ruth deciding to date David because of a vision of the future.
> 
> I tried to incorporate things that are actually in House of M comics along with this story, because David isn’t in House of M at all. Carol Danvers really does get along with Magneto, and the Shadow King possessed David Haller to kill Irene Adler in Uncanny X-Men.
> 
> David in the comics doesn’t really dress up for anything, but he would have been made to dress fancy for the event. I got the idea of him having something braided into his hair from Lorna’s outfit on the cover of House of M: Warzones, and the number eighteen is significant in Jewish religion. I wanted to acknowledge David’s Judaism in this fic, because it doesn’t often come up in comics.
> 
> All of David’s powers and their related alternate personalities are comics canon. Cyndi is one of his original three personalities.
> 
> In this chapter, we see David going through autistic overstimulation due to the noise of the crowd in the gallery. His telepathy only makes thing more overwhelming for him.
> 
> I also gave David better hair, because he deserves it. In all my fics, please assume that David has past-shoulder-length black hair that is mostly straight but slightly wavy. None of that sticking-up crap.
> 
> Disclaimer: Do NOT forcibly kiss autistic people. Don’t forcibly kiss anyone. The only reason why David liked it is because that’s his canon reaction to being kissed by Ruth in the comics. Forcibly kissing someone in real life is gross and you shouldn’t do it.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome <3
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. I am not making money from this work.


	2. Together, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter is exclusively cute couple stuff. If you want plot, skip to the next chapter.

David would be the first to admit that his romantic history was neither extensive nor impressive. Because of this, his strategy for seeing Ruth again basically involved turning up at the mansion and hoping that she noticed him. 

Dropping new students off at the school was something he liked to do a few times a year. He had a knack for finding young mutants that other telepaths couldn’t detect, and this time it had been a pair of telepathic twins in Japan. At first they hadn’t wanted to be found, but after a few minutes of David explaining to them that becoming Yakuza enforcers at the age of ten probably wasn’t a good life choice, he’d managed to convince them to come to the school with him. 

They were kind of adorable, in a willing-to-murder-you-with-telepathy sort of way. 

Usually when he dropped off new students he’d send them to go knock on the mansion door, but this time he actually went inside and made small talk in the kitchen with Ororo Munroe while Logan gave the twins a tour. Maybe Ruth would sense him. Maybe she’d want to talk. _Maybe_ , David hoped, _she’ll want to kiss me again._

Sure enough, mere moments after Ororo had wandered out of the kitchen, Ruth came in. She flushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. Such a simple action, but David found it thoroughly distracting. 

“Hi,” said Ruth. 

“Hey,” replied David. 

This sparkling repartee was interrupted when Hank McCoy strode into the kitchen, took one look at David, and hurried straight out again. 

“Is there anywhere more private we can go?” asked David. 

*

Ruth took David up to the mansion’s roof, all the time hoping that her shields were strong enough to prevent him from reading her mind. 

Mostly because she’d spent the last week depression-Googling David. 

A lot of it was common knowledge. His dissociative identity disorder came up in every article she read. His battle with the Shadow King was far from the X-Men’s most famous fight, but David had been only thirteen at the time and in telepath circles that made him a legend. 

There were several articles from a month ago when he’d arrived in Genosha, including one that speculated whether his insanity had been ‘cured at last’. This particular article had been edited to include an apology to the Genoshan royal family for its insensitivity regarding David’s mental illness. 

The article that she’d looked at the most wasn’t a proper article at all. It was a photoshoot of David in a variety of perfectly tailored suits. Her favourite of the pictures was currently her home phone screen (but not her lockscreen. Megan would tease her to death if she found out that Ruth had a crush on David Haller of all people). 

And now he was staring at her while she stammered out an explanation about Irene’s prophecy, followed by an apology for not asking before she’d kissed him, followed by more apologising for her existence in general. 

Once she was done, David fiddled with the zips on his leather jacket and said, “So it’s like we’re destined to be together, or something?” 

“Yes.” Ruth flushed even deeper than before. 

David turned away to stare out at the lake. The rooftop did command a beautiful view. “You know, you don’t have to date me if you don’t want to.” 

Ruth panicked. “Sorry. Thank you – I understand if you don’t want to date me.” 

“No – I mean, that’s not what I… I like you. But pretty girls generally don’t line up to date guys as messed up as me. Even if there’s a prophecy, it’s important that you don’t do this out of a sense of obligation.” 

“Well, I do want to date you, yes. Wait. Did you just call me pretty?” 

“Um… yeah?” 

“Sorry – But I don’t have any eyes.” 

He frowned. “So?” 

Ruth grinned. “Okay. Let’s make this official. Will you go out with me?” 

David smiled back. “Absolutely.” 

Now that she had a boyfriend, Ruth knew that she had to act cool. “So, uh, did you come here just to see me, or was there anything else? No, I mean, you don’t go to the school.” 

“Yeah, I take classes at the university. And I did drop off some new students today. Recruitment is basically the only semi-dangerous thing I’m allowed to do. Dad doesn’t let me do missions.” 

“But you’re…” Ruth made a gesture that indicated the general existence of David and his powers. 

“Insanely powerful? Yeah, but my disorder disqualifies me from anything where I could get hurt. And I’m not allowed to do anything political either, because, DID. So most of my royal duties are just turning up at events and remembering which cutlery to use when we have guests for dinner. I’ve asked for more responsibilities, but dad says no, and Erik always backs him up. He’s definitely still my second-favourite stepfather.” 

“You have another stepfather?” 

“Used to. His name was Daniel, he married my mum when I was two. Tell you the truth, I don’t remember him much, but he was nice. He died when I was six; there was a terrorist attack on the embassy where mum worked, and I watched it happen, and that’s how I ended up with a broken brain.” David ran a hand through his hair. “Shit, sorry, this is pretty dark stuff for what isn’t even properly a first date.” 

Ruth flushed. 

“What is it?” asked David. 

She smiled at him shyly. “You called it a date.” 

“Can I see you again sometime?” He hoped that he didn’t sound desperate, even if he was, just a little. 

“Wait here.” She rushed off, back down the stairs into the mansion. 

David waited. Maybe she needed a moment to think about whether she really wanted to date him. Maybe she just wanted to catch her breath. Maybe she’d already decided that she didn’t want him and she was going to leave him up here, waiting for her. 

Ruth climbed back up the stairs, slightly out of breath, and pressed a slip of paper into David’s palm. “My number.” She kissed his cheek. “Call me.” 

*

Lorna found David in his room, freaking out. This was not an uncommon activity for David to be found doing. The only difference was that was while he usually freaked out by pacing around his room or sitting and hugging his knees while rocking backwards and forwards, his current freak-out was taking the uncharacteristic form of staring at himself in the mirror of his walk-in closet. 

Still, she knew she should check on him. Last Saturday he’d had an episode. It hadn’t lasted long, but the alter that broke to the front hadn’t been one of the nice ones. The alter had grown claws of hard light from the tips of David’s fingers, and slashed up David’s bed and part of the wall. The damage had been repaired quickly and no-one was hurt, but David had been nervous and subdued for the rest of the week; it had been a blow to his confidence in living with his condition. 

Lorna leaned on the doorframe. “David, are you okay?” 

“I’m freaking out,” said David. 

“Care to share?” 

David went through a very brief and very obvious internal struggle, before seeming to come to a conclusion that a problem shared was a problem halved. “You can’t tell anyone. Not dad, not Erik. Promise.” 

“Okay, my lips are sealed.” Lorna made a zipping-up-her-mouth gesture for good measure. 

“I’m going on a date.” 

Well, she hadn’t expected that. Lorna had known David a long time. She’d known him briefly on Muir Island when he was twelve years old and kept in a padded cell, and now he was her little stepbrother. The combination meant that Lorna had never really thought of David as someone who dated. 

Oh, she knew that he’d had a girlfriend before, but that had been when he was fifteen. He’d dated a girl called Harriet for a full four weeks before telling her about his DID. She’d dumped him on the spot. 

Lorna had always assumed that David had no desire to repeat the experience, but apparently she’d been wrong. “That’s nice, David. That’s really nice.” 

“You don’t get it yet, Lorna. Our first date was meant to be _last_ Saturday.” 

“Oh David…” 

“I texted her about it afterwards. She’d hadn’t been kept waiting for me long, and she was really nice about it, so we rescheduled.” 

“And she already knows about the DID?” 

“Yeah. She’d fine with it. It’s just… I’ve got to meet her in twenty minutes and I’m really fucking nervous.” 

Lorna stopped leaning against the doorway and stood up straight, a woman with a mission. “It’s okay. I’ve got this.” 

She swept into David’s walk-in closet and took in its contents. There was definitely enough to work with in here. Lorna grabbed a dark blue silk shirt and shoved it into David’s hands. “Put this on.” 

David pulled at the hem of his shirt. “But I’m already wearing a shirt. What’s wrong with my shirt?” 

“You wear white shirts practically every day. She’s probably already seen you in a white shirt, so you need to wear something different to show that you’re making an effort for her. Dark blue complements your skin tone. Put it on, it’s Alexander McQueen.” 

David pulled off his white shirt and started to do up the buttons on the blue one. “Who the fuck is Alexander McQueen?” 

Lorna groaned as she picked up a bottle of men’s cologne, unused. She pulled off the cap. “Okay, we’re going to do this French-style. I’m going to spray this and you’re going to walk through the mist.” 

He made a face. “I’ve already showered, washed my hair, and put on deodorant. Are you sure that cologne isn’t overkill?” 

She fixed him with a glare. “Do. It.” 

David acquiesced. 

With cologne applied, David practically begged Lorna to agree to let him wear his leather jacket over his shirt, and she agreed. “Remember, if at any point in the date she says she feels cold, lend her your jacket.” 

“I could just use my powers to raise the temperature of the air around her...” 

“No. Lending a girl your jacket is a universally recognised romantic gesture, and if she says she is cold you are going to do it, because it shows that you are a gentleman. Trust me on this.” 

He sighed. “Fine. Okay. Okay, I’ve got this. It’s going to be fine. She likes me. I’ve got this.” He started to take deep, slow breaths. 

Lorna told David to “Go get it, tiger,” and left him to finish his pep talk to himself. 

*

“Megan,” said Ruth, causing her roommate to pull out one earbud and flick her dragonfly wings. 

“What?” 

“I’m going into town, pardon, thank you. The comic book store has an event on late – sorry – so don’t wait up.” 

“Okay.” Megan went to replace the earbud, then thought better of it. “Are you wearing lipgloss?” 

“What? No.” Ruth replied, a little too quickly. Megan shrugged and started listening to her music again. 

*

“So how’d it go?” asked Lorna as she lounged on David’s couch. 

He was grinning from ear to ear. “It went great. Really fucking great.” 

She huffed. “Well now I feel depressingly single. Maybe I should text Alex...” 

“Lorna, you know as well as I do that you should never, _ever_ , text your ex.” 

*

The dates after that went even better. By their one-month anniversary they were both starting to get over the anxiety which came from being in the early stages of a relationship and relax around each other. 

For their one-month anniversary, David had asked if he could plan the date, and so far, Ruth was loving it. 

“So,” she said, stirring her milkshake with her straw, “I think I’m sensing a theme here, pardon. _Midnight movie_ showing. _Milkshake._ Not to mention the _mystery_ of you not telling me anything about what was going to – please – happen on this date.” 

“Well,” said David, reaching out to hold her hand across the table, “It is our one- _month_ anniversary. And we’re both mutants, so I figured why not go with a theme?” He gave her the lopsided smile which she was very quickly growing to love. “I wanted to do something special for you. For us. Do I get to say us? I mean, have we been together long enough to qualify as an ‘us’?” 

She squeezed his hand. “Sure. Let’s be an ‘us’.” 

“Finished with your smoothie?” 

Ruth nodded. 

“Great.” 

He leaned over the table to kiss her, and when he pulled away they were… 

They were on the moon. 

They hovered in a transparent sphere of air, about a metre above the silver-gray cratered surface. Far, far away in the sky hung the shining Earth, suspended among a whole universe of shimmering stars. 

It took her a while to catch her breath. “I… this is…” 

David took her hand. The whole world around them was beautiful and wondrous, but he was looking at nothing but her. “I told you, darling. I wanted to do something special.” 

Something about the attention of those mismatched eyes brought her thoughts crashing back to reality. “Wait. How much oxygen do we have?” 

“Plenty, don’t worry.” He kissed the top of her head. “Want to go see where Apollo 11 landed?” 

“Actually…” Ruth turned on the spot, taking in the view. “Actually, I think I just want to stay here and hang out with you. Please, sorry. Just promise that you won’t turn blue or get naked or burn a hydrogen atom shape into your forehead.” 

“Wait, what?” 

“Nothing. Just, yes, yes, a comic book I read once. Let’s… let’s just stay here a while.” 

“Sure. Whatever you want.” 

She wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned her head on his shoulder. 

Later, Ruth would telekinetically reshape the moon dust below them into a smiley face. 

Later, David would start singing Man on the Moon and Ruth would call him a goof, but she wouldn’t ask him to stop singing because his voice was smooth and clear when he wasn’t worried about being judged by anyone listening to him. 

But for now, David said, “You know, you missed a few M-words. The _midnight movie_ showing was a _mediocre movie_ so that we could _make_ out for _multiple minutes_ in the _middle_ of the _motion_ picture.” 

Ruth giggled and shut him up with a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being in proximity to someone and hoping that they’ll notice you is a widely practised Autistic Flirting TacticTM. Which is probably why I’m single.
> 
> I would like to apologise for the alliteration in this chapter. It is comic-book accurate, if that’s any kind of excuse.
> 
> I took a lot of inspiration from X-Men Legacy issue 9 here, including the fact that Ruth likes the Watchmen comics, and there's a reference to Sojobo and Karasu, who both turn up early on in X-Men Legacy.


	3. Together, Part 3

Christmas fell during Hanukkah that year, so they decided to meet up on Christmas Day, where David would give Ruth her Christmas present, and Ruth would give David his Hanukkah present. 

He handed her a slim package, and when she unwrapped it she stopped, completely motionless. 

And stayed like that for a while. 

“Do you like it?” David asked, worried that his present had somehow broken his girlfriend. 

Her voice was shaking slightly. “This is a first edition of issue one of Watchmen.” 

“Uh, yeah.” 

“It’s. Signed.” 

“Yeah, I mean, you mentioned that you liked Watchmen, so…” he trailed off. 

Ruth face-palmed with the hand that wasn’t holding the comic. “You got me the – the best present anyone has ever given me, ever, and I got you a Star Wars novelisation!” 

David looked down at the book in his lap. “Yeah, and I’m gonna read it, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.” 

“Yeah, but it’s about, you know…” 

David put his arm around her waist and she shifted so that they were closer. “Hey, it’s fine. It’s Hanukkah and I’m with my girlfriend. Things are great.” 

Ruth beamed, and did the thing where she tucked her hair behind her ear in a way that was guaranteed to cut of David’s train of thought. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. The Young Avengers are throwing a New Year’s party. I got an invite, and I get to bring whoever I want.” 

“Oh,” said David. “Right.” He frowned. 

Ruth back-tracked. “Okay. I mean, it’s fine if you don’t want to go. I know you don’t really like parties.” 

“No, no, I do want to go. It’s just… Billy and Tommy didn’t invite me. And maybe it would be weird because I’m technically their uncle, but I’m only seven months older than them. They didn’t even mention it.” He sighed. “I guess I shouldn’t feel surprised. We don’t even see each other apart from passing in the corridors or family dinner. And if they wanted me at their party, they would have invited me, right?” 

She looked up at him. “Well, you could always turn up anyway.” 

“Are you suggesting I crash a party?” He laughed. “Dating you is turning me into a delinquent.” 

*

David had never been to a proper party before, but he’d come prepared with earplugs so that the loud music wouldn’t overwhelm him. He’d be able to talk to Ruth through telepathy, which would probably be easier than them shouting at each other over the blaring music anyway. 

He was slightly late, but not by too much. 

He made his way through the crush of dancing bodies, hoping that nobody would recognise him, found Ruth, tapped her on the shoulder. She turned. Every time he saw that smile, it took his breath away. 

They danced. It turned out that dancing at one of these parties mainly involved jumping up and down, and occasionally throwing your arms in the air. Sometimes he and Ruth would get knocked against each other by a fellow dancer, and that was nice too. 

And then the countdown to midnight began, and Ruth threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, kissed him in front of everyone, and for a moment, everything was perfect. 

*

When he teleported back into his bedroom, Lorna was sitting on his sofa. 

“The fuck are you doing in my room?” 

She raised one green eyebrow. “The fuck are you doing sneaking in at nearly three am?” 

He shrugged. “Spent New Year’s with my girlfriend.” 

She snorted. “Look, David, I was just worried because you weren’t in the house and nobody seemed to know where you were. And I know we don’t talk much, but I know that you need a regular sleep schedule to keep on top of your mental health. This girl you’re seeing probably knows it too.” 

David grinned, more than a little smug. “Well, she clearly ignored that fact when she suggested we find a hotel room after the countdown. And I was more than happy to go along with her.” 

Lorna groaned. “Do not tell me any details. I do not want dirty details.” 

“Wasn’t going to tell you anything. Now get out of my room, I need to sleep.” 

*

After New Year’s, David got to thinking. 

He was getting tired of hiding his relationship from everyone. The only person who even knew he had a girlfriend was Lorna, and even then, he hadn’t even told her Ruth’s name, because the last thing David needed was for his dad to read Ruth’s name out of Lorna’s mind and make the connection. 

Except that he also kind of wanted his father to know that he was dating someone. They’d hardly talked since he’d arrived in Genosha; maybe this would be something that they could actually have a conversation about. 

He talked it over with Ruth, who also wanted to be able to talk to her friends about the fact that she had a boyfriend now, and they set a date for when David would tell his family about Ruth, and when Ruth would tell her friends about David. 

*

David had kind of hoped that Lorna would be there to back him up, but she was called away just as dinner was about to start. 

He sat, and listened, and ate, waiting for the right moment to bring it up. 

This was… way more stressful than it should be. 

Eventually there was a break in the conversation. David finished his mouthful, and said, “So I thought I might bring my girlfriend over sometime.” 

“What?” said his father. 

Shit. Not a good start. “My girlfriend. I have one. I thought I might bring her over. You don’t have to say hi to her or anything, we can just hang out in my room.” 

Charles frowned. “David, are you sure you should be dating right now?” 

“What does that mean? Billy’s allowed to date, and he’s younger than I am.” David looked across the table at Billy, hoping for some support. Billy looked away. 

His dad sighed. “You’ve only just reached a period of relative mental stability. Seven months ago you were still in a clinic. Something as… tumultuous as a relationship might threaten your mental health.” 

David snorted. “My relationship with my girlfriend is not ‘tumultuous’. It’s stable. We’ve been together six months. So just say that you don’t think I should date because I’m mentally ill, and move the fuck on.” 

Charles shared a glance with Erik, and Erik said, “You need to consider your station. This girl may only be with you because you’re a prince.” 

“What kind of telepath do you think I am? I’ve been in her head, I know how she feels about me.” 

“David,” said Charles, “It’s entirely possible that what you saw was merely a reflection of your own feelings.” 

“Oh, so first she’s only with me because I’m a prince, and now I can’t recognise the emotion of love? Give me a fucking break.” 

“You need to show some respect,” said Erik. 

“I’ll show it when it’s shown to me.” 

“You aren’t considering your position as a prince at all, are you?” his stepfather continued. “The last thing this family needs is some kind of sex scandal to reach the tabloids.” 

“Well, _for your information_ , stepfather mine, we use protection. Which is more than dad did with mum.” 

“David that’s enough,” Charles snapped. 

David turned to look at his father. “Honestly, I think you might welcome a scandal. Something to justify kicking me out of this family. Because you clearly don’t want me here.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

There it was. An invitation for David to finally say something that he hadn’t talked about even with Ruth. “You didn’t invite me to the wedding. You didn’t invite me to the fucking wedding! I woke up one day to find out from a news website that my father had married Magneto. A man who I thought you hated. You told me that you’d married him the next day, via email. Fucking email! What, I didn’t rate a phonecall?” He stood. “Well, you know what? Screw this. Screw this stupid fucking family. You don’t want me here, and I don’t have to stay.” 

“David,” said Charles, “You need to calm down. Take some breaths.” 

“For fuck’s sake, why can’t you just leave the kid alone?” 

David clamped a hand over his mouth. Everyone was staring at him in shock. 

The voice that had said those words hadn’t been his. It had been Cyndi’s. 

He turned and ran. 

*

“He’s gone, Erik.” Charles was sitting in the middle of David’s room. “He’s gone,” he repeated. “He just… packed his things and left.” 

“He’ll come back, Charles. That boy has never had to survive on his own before in his life. I guarantee that within the week he’ll come crawling back and begging for forgiveness.” 

Charles shook his head. “You don’t know him the way I do. David would rather live on the streets than ask forgiveness for something he doesn’t view as wrong. Not that he’ll be living on the streets; he’s emptied his bank account. If he’s careful with money he could keep going for months before it runs out.” 

“We’ll find him. We could track his phone –” 

Charles held up a scorched, vaguely rectangular lump of metal and plastic. “He melted it.” He turned his chair in a circle, looking at the room David had left behind. “He hasn’t been happy here, Erik. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, but he hated this room.” 

“What do you mean? There isn’t anything wrong with it.” 

“Look at it, Erik. Billy and Tommy… their bedrooms are always a total mess. This room is so tidy – it’s not the room of a teenage boy. And he hasn’t changed anything, he hasn’t put up any pictures or taken down the ones that were already there. He hasn’t made this room his. He hasn’t wanted to. There’s dust on his easel. He hasn’t been painting, and David paints when he’s happy. God, how did I not see it?” 

Erik kissed the top of Charles’ head. “He’ll come back, love.” They both knew that Erik didn’t believe what he was saying. 

David was gone. 

*

David was sitting on Ruth’s bed. Megan was having a Danger Room session, so Ruth had their room to herself for once, and when David turned up outside her window she’d let him in immediately, and he’d explained everything. 

“So then I – I went back to my room and packed my things, and teleported away,” He finished. “Fuck, I think I just ran away from home.” He leaned back, resting his head against the wall. “I didn’t even get as far as telling them your name.” 

Ruth squeezed his hand. “Do you regret it?” 

“Honestly? Not even slightly. I wasn’t happy there. I mean, when dad asked me to come to Genosha, I thought it was because he wanted us to be closer, but he hardly even spoke to me. And my stepfamily barely ever acknowledged my existence, except for Lorna, and even then… we talked like once a week. She was my stepsister, and we were living in the same house, and we only had a conversation once a week. That’s not right. And I was really ready to take on more responsibility, be a prince, but they didn’t let me do anything significant. Like, I know for a fact that Pietro daydreams through every single Council session, but I wasn’t even allowed to attend, and I wanted to be there.” He sighed. “Because nobody wanted me there. I think it’s better off this way.” 

He paused, then went on. “And they assumed, they just assumed straight away that any romantic relationship I was in was bound to be unhealthy, just because of who I am. It was as if they never really saw me. I mean, Ruth, we’ve both put effort into this relationship to make it work, because it’s good, because it’s worth it, and dad and Erik just didn’t want to know. And then Cyndi took me over, and it was just for a second, and they all looked so horrified… I talked to her about it later, she promised not to do it again. To be honest, I don’t even blame her all that much. Dad was being such a shit.” 

She leaned against him. “What are you going to do now?” 

“I’m not sure. I’ve booked myself into the kind of hotel that doesn’t ask questions, so I’ve got somewhere to stay and enough money to last a while, and as long as I shield my mind and wear an illusion I’ll still be able to go to uni, and dad can’t find me with Cerebro, so… I think I’ll be okay. They definitely won’t be able to find me at least. And honestly? I feel kind of free. I don’t have to live up to their expectations anymore. I can just be myself. So yeah, I think I feel more free than I ever have before.” He took a breath. “I guess I just wish they’d been more accepting.” 

*

_One month later…_

Valentine’s Day at the Xavier School for the Gifted was bound to bring about its usual share of first kisses and broken hearts, and Ruth was more than glad to not have to deal with any of the drama. That was the advantage of dating someone who wasn’t a fellow student. 

She was surprised, however, when Storm brought in the mail that morning and said that there was something for her. Ruth never got letters. 

Except it wasn’t a letter. It was a dozen yellow roses. The card that came with it said: _They say that red is traditional, but I know you prefer yellow._

Ruth smiled. She recognised the handwriting. 

“Sending roses to yourself?” said Mindee Frost. “Geez, that has to be a new low, even for you.” 

“She has a boyfriend, dumbass,” said Megan, backing Ruth up. “I’ve met him. He’s kind of weird, but he’s cool.” She turned to Ruth. “Do _not_ tell him that I said he was cool.” 

Ruth was definitely going to tell David that Megan thought he was cool. He would never let Megan live it down. 

Mindee scoffed. “If he’s so real, how come I’ve never seen him at the mansion? I know every inch of this place’s gossip network.” 

“He lives in England, yes, pardon,” said Ruth. “We’re making it work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I’m referencing the party at the end of the Young Avengers comics, where David and Ruth can both be seen dancing in the background at the end of issue 14.
> 
> Notice that Ruth’s no longer stammering around David because she feels comfortable around him.


	4. Gone, Part 1

“Hello, this is Ambassador Gabrielle Haller speaking.” 

“....” 

“You again? Look, this has got to stop. This is the third time this week. I know you’re there, I can hear you breathing.” She sighed. “I’m a busy woman. I don’t have time to deal with prank callers.” 

David hung up. “I am such a fucking coward,” he told the phonebooth and the empty air. 

*

In Pete Wisdom’s opinion, David Haller had chosen the worst possible time to visit London. 

Not that anyone had asked him, of course. It had just been “Oh, Wisdom, get out there and watch the incredibly powerful mentally unstable Prince of Genosha and see if he’d going to do anything dangerous.” 

It had seemed almost okay, at first. Tucked up in a disguised surveillance van and listening in on the bugs that had been planted in Haller’s hotel room by an agent disguised as a cleaner. Except that an hour after the bugs were planted, they’d gone silent. Ten minutes after that, they’d turned up in a little plastic bag taped to the windscreen of the surveillance van. Nobody had seen anyone put them there. 

With the van compromised, MI13 had decided that it could be of better use elsewhere, so instead of sitting in a heated van, Wisdom had ended up standing in an alleyway facing the front of Haller’s hotel in the cold March weather. 

Still, it could have been worse, he supposed. He could’ve been stationed across town, monitoring the state visit of President Abdi of Aquiria. 

You name a minority, Abdi had passed a law discriminating against them, and plenty of people had turned up to protest. Word was that even the government higher-ups didn’t want him there, but at the end of the day, Aquiria was sitting on a metric shit-ton of oil, and were willing to negotiate prices. 

Even if he’d wanted to be there, Wisdom wouldn’t have been allowed. Abdi didn’t like mutants to so much as look at him, let alone shake his hand. 

So instead, he was standing across from the hotel where David Haller was staying, hoping that the kid didn’t decide to take a jaunt across town and mess up the state visit. 

The last thing anyone needed was for the Genoshans to get involved with this. There was still no official line as to why David was no longer living with the Genoshan royal family, and Wisdom wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out. 

The front door of the hotel opened; Haller was on the move. Wisdom followed discreetly. 

Maybe the kid was going to spend a few hours staring at the Israeli embassy from across the street. He did that almost every day. 

But no, he was headed in the wrong direction for that. 

After about half an hour of shadowing Haller’s steps, the kid turned in to a deserted street. Wisdom kept well back. A teenage girl wearing a purple denim jacket, faded jeans, and dark sunglasses appeared at the other end of the street, smiled when she saw Haller, took his hand, kissed him, and then the two of them were off walking again. 

They walked for a while. 

After three quarters of an hour, Wisdom was getting suspicious. 

They weren’t heading anywhere. They walked with purpose and they didn’t slow or stop, but anyone who knew London’s streets knew that with the route they were taking, they couldn’t possibly have a destination in mind. It was suspicious. And at that exact moment, both Haller and his lady friend turned around and looked right at him from across the street. 

Pete Wisdom swore. 

Then Haller and the bird were off running, and Pete was pursuing them, shoving pedestrians aside so that he didn’t lose his quarry. 

They went down a side street, and Wisdom saw them both rush into an alley. 

He knew this spot; it was a dead end. 

Wisdom let the plasma blades slide out from the tips of his fingers. If Haller was cornered then this might turn into a fight. 

He ran in to the alley, blades raised – 

And found himself plunging them in to David Haller’s chest. 

The kid collapsed. 

To be honest, knowing that he’d just killed one of the most powerful-slash-dangerous mutants on the planet didn’t feel too bad. 

Not that Wisdom had much time to enjoy it. The chick who’d been clinging to Haller’s arm was looking right at him, face pale. Or at least, he assumed she was looking at him. It was hard to tell with those sunglasses. 

“You –” she choked out, “You killed him!” 

Pain. More pain than he’d ever felt before in his life. White-hot needles lancing into his brain. Wisdom fell to his knees. He was going to die. He was going to die at the hands of a teenage girl in a back alley because he’d accidentally bumped off her boyfriend and – 

“Ruth, it’s okay. I’m okay. I’m fine. It was just an illusion, remember?” 

The pain stopped. Wisdom looked up. 

Inexplicably, Haller was standing next to the girl, looking very much alive. 

The girl – Ruth, Wisdom assumed – had one hand pressed to her mouth. “I know – sorry sorry sorry. It just felt so real.” 

Haller shrugged. “You didn’t kill him, he didn’t kill me, the plan’s going fine, no harm done.” 

And then they both vanished. 

Dammit dammit fuck. 

It had been a distraction. 

Pete had been following illusions around London for over an hour. 

And at the same time, President Abdi had been in London for a state visit. 

“That little pillock.” 

Pete ran. 

*

He arrived at the protest panting heavily. He really needed to do more cardio. There was clearly something wrong; Abdi was meant to have arrived at Parliament ages ago, but instead, the cars of his convoy were at a standstill in the middle of the road. A mechanic was looking inside the hood of one of them. 

Pete muscled through the protesters until he reached the barrier. He waved his badge at a policewoman. “MI13, what’s happening here?” 

She gestured to the cars. “We don’t really know. About two hours ago, all their engines cut out. We worried that it was some kind of terrorist attack – they’re sitting ducks here – but nothing’s happened. We managed to get a mechanic to look at them, but he’s still trying to figure out what killed the engines.” She glanced around warily. “To be honest, whoever did this must be a professional. The engines all died at exactly the same time, it must have been some really careful planning.” 

“Hmm,” said Wisdom. He suspected that it wasn’t careful planning; no, just a little schizo trying to do God-knows-what. He glanced around, and finally found Haller among the protesters, standing next to… 

Shit. Standing next to the who’s-who of British mutants. 

Lila Cheney. 

Betsy Braddock. 

Jono Starsmore. 

Megan Gwynn. 

Thomas Jones. 

And Liam Connaughton. 

Fuck, Liam Connaughton was supposed to be _dead_. 

The seven of them were all carrying signs. Cheney was leading a chant about mutant rights, and the others were joining in enthusiastically. 

Pete pushed his way over to them. “The fuck are you doing, Haller?” 

“Protesting.” Haller looked up at the sign he was holding. “Is – is that not obvious? I thought you MI13 types were supposed to be observant.” 

“You’re under arrest.” 

“For what? It’s a peaceful protest.” 

“As if that’s all you’re doing. You’re coming with me.” 

“Well, if you insist…” Haller looked around. “Hey! Anybody want this sign?” 

*

**Of course, if you ask me, we should lock David Haler up and throw away the key. Unfortunately, there’s no way that we’ll be able to do that without pissing off the Genoshans, so it seems that**

“You made a spelling mistake.” 

Pete looked up from his computer screen. “Dammit Haller, stop fucking teleporting out of your cell.” 

“My surname has two ls in it. And why would I stay in my cell? There’s nothing to do in there.” 

Pete huffed. It had been a long day. “Fine. Fine, if you won’t stay there, can you at least explain how you did it?” 

The little shit feigned ignorance. “Did what? I mean, you haven’t even charged me with anything.” 

“I’m not an idiot, Haller. I know what happened in Aquiria. A flawless coup, completely bloodless. Word is that ex-President Abdi is stewing in some secure hotel room and wondering where things all went wrong.” 

Haller smiled. “I hear the new Aquirian president even decided to sign an oil deal with Britain. Though if you ask me, people should be focusing more on renewable power.” 

“Nobody’s asking you about that.” Pete rose from behind his desk and jabbed Haller in the chest with a finger. “What I’m asking you is how the coup happened. I know you had something to do with it.” 

“Oh, I had _nothing_ to do with it,” said Haller, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “But, hypothetically speaking, suppose someone were to meet up with the leader of a rebel group in Aquiria. Now, this person saw that the rebels were organised, and they had a good ideology and good discipline. The only problem was that they didn’t have firepower. Abdi’s men had the guns and the missiles, the rebels only had a dream of a better future for their country. Well, our imaginary person might just want to help. 

“And then, one day, he – let’s pretend this person is a guy – arranged for all the guns and missiles in Aquiria to disappear. All of a sudden there was nothing stopping the rebels from taking over and setting up a new regime. And it’s a good regime: equal rights for women, religious freedom, legalising same-sex marriage… anyway. Making the guns disappear wasn’t all our hypothetical person did. The thing about President Abdi was that he was a control freak. Wouldn’t let his generals so much as blow their noses without his say-so. And for two hours on that very eventful day, his generals weren’t able to reach him. Because he was stuck in a broken-down car and someone – no idea who – was blocking calls from reaching his mobile phone.” 

Wisdom realised where this was going. “So when the generals tried to call Abdi for orders, they couldn’t get through.” 

Haller nodded. “And then a new day dawned in the history of Aquiria.” 

“Fine,” said Wisdom. “Whatever. Get back in your cell.” He grabbed Haller by his shirtfront and dragged him down the corridor back to the holding cells. 

“You know, I bet there’s a time limit for how long you can hold me if you haven’t charged me with anything…” 

Pete hauled open a cell door with his hand and threw Haller in. “Yeah, well, you won’t be in here much longer. See, you created kind of an international incident, so, to comply with regulations, I contacted your embassy.” 

“Genosha?” Haller laughed. “I’m not sure if I’m even a prince anymore. The royal family’s probably disowned me.” 

This time it was Pete’s turn to laugh. “I didn’t tell the Genoshans anything. You’ve got two parents, don’t you?” 

Haller’s face turned ashen. 

Pete’s grin widened. “Yeah, that’s right. I went and told your mother. She’s sending a car over to collect you this afternoon. Probably an armed guard as well. Until then, sit tight.” 

Haller fell to his knees, and Pete shut the door in his face. 

For a moment he considered turning the lights on in Haller’s cell so that he could watch the kid stew on CCTV, but he decided against it. He liked the idea of the boy sitting there in the dark. 

*

In actual fact, Pete had found Gabrielle Haller’s email somewhat terrifying. She didn’t just know the law, she _knew_ the law, and was perfectly prepared to throw the book at him unless he handed over her son ASAP. 

He led two of her representatives through the corridors of the MI13 headquarters, towards the holding cells. 

“Here we go,” said Pete, stopping outside Haller’s cell. “He’s just in here.” 

Pete pressed a few buttons by the cell door, turning on the light and unlocking it. He pulled the door open. 

_Shit. Oh shit._

The cell was empty. 

A series of numbers had been carved into one bare concrete wall: a set of coordinates, a date, and a time. 

Haller was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is clearly inspired by issues 13 and 14 of X-Men Legacy, but I made some changes. One of the things that never sat well with me about those issues was the fact that David’s plan consisted of showing that mutants could benefit Britain. If all oppressed people had to do in order to no longer be oppressed was show that they could contribute to society, then sexism, racism, and homophobia wouldn’t exist. Besides, that message leaves a worrying gap for disabled people, who are sometimes limited in what ableists would deem a ‘worthy contribution to society’.
> 
> Instead, I went for more of an activist approach, having David attend a protest and work with a human rights group.


	5. Gone, Part 2

As soon as the helicopter touched down, Gabrielle’s security team and pilot collapsed, unconscious. 

David must already be here. 

She stepped out, pulling her dark green duffel coat closer around her. Her advisors had told her not to come. She’d ignored them. 

Muir Island hadn’t changed much. It was still mostly windblown trees and half-dead grass. Bleak, but beautiful in its own way. 

He was standing outside the building, his back to her, waiting. His long black hair blew in the breeze. Black hair that he’d inherited from her. 

He was so much taller than she remembered 

“David.” She murmured his name. 

*

He was taller than her. It felt strange. 

David hadn’t seen her since he was thirteen, when teenage growth spurts were still a thing of the future. He’d been all elbows and knees back then. Elbows and knees and bright, staring eyes that had unnerved all the nurses. 

She looked older. That was strange, too. He’d known on an intellectual level that she’d continued to age in the four years since he’d last seen her, but to see the new lines around her eyes was something else entirely. 

She was looking up at the great concrete edifice of the Muir Island Mutant Research Facility. “I didn’t know that they’d rebuilt.” 

“They didn’t,” he told her. “I was just thinking out loud.” He banished the illusion, revealing the wreck that the building had become after the Shadow King’s attack. 

Most of the ceiling had fallen in, and the walls that were still standing slumped against each other like back-alley drunks that were just waiting to die. 

“Hello, mum.” 

His voice seemed to have jerked her into action. “I – I sent a car over, as soon as I found out about the arrest, but you weren’t there, you were already gone.” The words came out in a rush. 

David wondered when was the last time that his mother hadn’t been scared of him. “Relax, mum. Come on, let’s go inside.” 

He still remembered the layout of the building. He’d been dragged through the place often enough, kicking and screaming and all wrapped up in a straitjacket. 

A section of one of the corridor’s walls had fallen down, and through it David could hear the sea. He kept walking. They came to a section where part of the ceiling had collapsed, and they both had to duck to get through. 

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked you here,” said David. “I mean, you haven’t seen me since my Bar Mitzvah. Four years of zero contact. Do I sound different? My voice broke while you were gone. I’m taller, too. Four years of _nothing_ from you. Not a phone call, not an email. And now I invite you here. The place where you dumped me.” 

“I –” 

“Don’t you want to know why you’re here? It’s because I’ve got something to show you.” 

She followed him down to the end of a corridor. They turned a corner. 

“Here we are.” 

Like all the rooms in the facility, its walls were bare grey concrete. The ceiling had fallen in, showing a view of a rainy sky. A few pieces of banged-up equipment were piled in one corner. 

Every instinct in David’s body was telling him to turn and run. 

“David,” said his mother, “I don’t think I understand.” 

“Then I’ll show you.” David opened his mind and let the memories flow. He heard his mother gasp. “You see? _There’s_ where they kept the drugs to sedate me when they thought I was too unruly. And _there’s_ where they would hang up the straitjacket – when I wasn’t wearing it, of course. And _there’s_ the bed they would strap me to. They would tie me down and leave me like that for hours. If I was lucky, that was all. If I was unlucky, they’d inject me with experimental drugs and perform electric shock therapy. If I was really unlucky, it would be a coma-inducing IV. My childhood was stolen from me in this room. They tortured me. And you put me here.” David let the illusion fade and took a few more steps into the room, until he was standing where the bed had once been. He still remembered how it felt to have the straps digging into him, so tight that he wanted to claw his own skin off. “Why, mum? Where were you?” 

Gabrielle Haller sighed. “David, my life is diplomatic duties and hostage negotiations and improving Jewish-Muslim relations. I take emails from governments, from royalty. I stop antisemitic articles from being published in newspapers. And in the evenings I have half a glass of wine and I watch a movie. My life and my job is difficult and tiring and rewarding and normal. It’s normal. I understand it. But you… oh, David, you never had a chance at normal. I didn’t belong in your world – the world of superheroes and superpowers and mutants. That world never had anything to do with me.” 

David felt his body sag. “So it was the mutant thing? You couldn’t stand the idea of your son having powers, so when he lost his mind you sent him off to be tortured until he was normal again?” 

“I wanted you cured,” his mother said. “Not of being a mutant, never of that, but… I wanted you cured.” She seemed so much smaller than he remembered. So much older, so much weaker, so tired. 

“There’s no cure for this,” said David, “And if there was, I don’t know if I’d take it. I don’t know who I’d be without my condition, I don’t think I’d recognise myself. And you didn’t give me a choice, you sent me away. Daniel was dead and I was grieving and you sent me away. Did it never occur to you that I was scared? Lonely? That I wanted my mother?” 

She looked at him as if he’d slapped her. 

David kept talking. “Oh, I know that you were grieving too. You’d just lost your husband. But that doesn’t justify abandoning me. Do you think that’s what Daniel would have wanted? He was a therapist, he would have understood my condition. Do you think he would have still been able to love me after my mind was broken?” 

There were tears in his mother’s eyes. “Yes. Yes he would. Of course he would, he – he –” 

“He what?” 

Her face went blank, and she looked him dead in the eyes. “He knew.” 

“Knew what?” 

There was something haunted in her look, something strangely vulnerable. “David, I’m schizophrenic.” 

David reeled. “No – no – I would know, I would have sensed it – but you’re telling the truth, how – how are you telling the truth?” He took a shuddering breath. “How do you pass? How the fuck do you pass as sane?” 

She pulled her coat tighter around her. “Even among schizophrenics, I’m lucky. I have ways of controlling it. I take my meds, and I don’t see anything that isn’t there. Before the doctors figured out the right course of medication, though… I once told you that after the liberation of Dachau, I was sent to an orphanage in Israel. I lied. It wasn’t an orphanage, it was an asylum. Catatonic schizophrenia. Most of the time, I didn’t even move. I just sat there in a wheelchair. But one day the doctors tried a new kind of medicine, and it worked like a dream. I was released, I became a lawyer, I met Charles…” 

“And then I happened,” said David. “I know the rest of that story. And Daniel knew.” He paused. “Who else knows?” 

“Your father. Nobody else. David, you must understand, if you told anyone, if it got out, I could lose my job…” 

“Yeah, you probably would lose your job. And even worse, people might start treating you the way they treat me.” 

“You… After the doctors told me you had DID, I kept thinking how it was my fault. About how you’d probably inherited the potential for it from me.” 

David felt empty. “That’s not how DID works, mum. You know that’s not how it develops. I watched Daniel die, and my brain coped… badly.” 

His mother nodded. “I know, I just hoped… I hoped that you might be like me in more ways than one. That you might have a simple way to cope. A medication, a therapy…” 

“You wanted me cured.” 

She nodded. 

“You left me here, mum. You left me here on my own, to be poked and prodded until my mind took a shape that society was going to accept. They _hurt_ me. And you weren’t here.” 

The rain was falling harder now, but David was certain that some of the drops on his mother’s face were tears. “Oh, David,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” 

She hugged him. 

*

Ex-President Abdi stood on the roof of the building on the island in Scotland and watched the abomination talk with its mother. 

In the first few hours after he’d been deposed, he’d known only fury. Fury, not just at his situation, but at how difficult it would be to get revenge. The new president of Aquiria would be well-protected. Assassinating her would not be easy. 

It was only a few days later that he found out that his downfall hadn’t only been because of her. Someone else had helped. A young freak named David Haller who had recently broken out of an MI13 prison, leaving a message behind. 

Abdi’s resources had been much depleted, but he still had enough money left to hire a sniper and travel to Muir Island. 

“Take the shot,” he said. 

*

The sniper fired, and at the exact same moment, a mother stepped forward to hug her son. The bullet entered the woman’s body just below her collarbone, passed through her chest, clipped her lung, and exited through her back, between two of her ribs. 

Gabrielle Haller crumpled. 

David turned, eyes glowing, to look at the two figures on the roof. He raised one hand, fingers extended, sending forth a burst of light that melted flesh from bone. An ex-dictator and a sniper became two charred skeletons smoking on a concrete roof. 

David dropped to his knees. 

*

He turned her onto her back, pressed his hands against the wound, slipped into his mindscape. _“Where’s the healer?”_ he screamed at his alters. _“Where’s the fucking healer?”_

But his alters fled before his rage and pain. 

“Mum,” he told her, “It’s going to be fine, it’s going to be fine.” 

She looked up at him. “David, I…” 

She passed out, but it wasn’t too late, her mind was still there, she wasn’t dead yet. 

David picked her up and folded the world around himself until he was standing in the A&E wing of a London hospital. Everyone was staring at him. He held his mother’s body out to the nearest nurse. “Fucking help her!” 

A few moments later, someone was taking her from him and laying her down on a gurney. A nurse was doing his best to slow the bleeding. 

Someone was asking David a question, but their words were muffled. 

He let himself fade. 

*

David reappeared at the Xavier Institute in Genosha. A few people stared at him, curious, but he slipped into their minds and made them forget that he was there. 

A few moments later, Ruth sat down next to him. He couldn’t bear to say it out loud, so instead he let her see the memories. 

“She might make it,” said Ruth. 

“Or she might not. There’s not real way of telling just yet.” 

“How do you feel?” 

“Numb, mostly. I can feel myself going into shock. I – I killed the guys who did it. The one who gave the order and the one who pulled the trigger. Part of me wishes that I’d done it slower. Part of me wonders if dad would be ashamed of me for killing them.” 

David took a long, shuddering breath. “It should have been me, Ruth. They were aiming at me. They were aiming at me and they fucking missed and they hit her instead. It should have been me, I can survive something like that. It should have been me.” 

Ruth held David, and he put his head on her shoulder, and for a long time he did nothing but sob.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is inspired by X-Men Legacy issue 15. The only difference is that I have no intention of fridging Gabrielle.
> 
> Gabrielle Haller’s schizophrenia is comics canon. In the comics, Charles cures her. The trope of curing someone of their mental illness never sat well with me, so I have replaced this with Gabrielle finding a way to easily manage her condition, contrasting with David’s long-term issues in finding mental stability.


	6. Gone, Part 3

Living with David was easier than she’d thought it would be. 

From what Charles had told her, Gabrielle had imagined typical teenage rebellion: insolence and come-backs and loud rock music playing from his room. 

It hadn’t been like that at all. 

He kept himself to himself. The time difference between Genosha and England wasn’t too big, so he was still attending university. When he was at home he was either hold up in his room doing assignments, or holed up his room listening to music (at quite a reasonable volume, Gabrielle had to admit), or in Genosha, with ‘friends’. He hadn’t elaborated on saying anything about these friends, and Gabrielle hadn’t pushed him. David living with her seemed such a fragile thing, and she didn’t want to break it. 

Mostly, she was just happy to be alive. The doctors said she’d been lucky with the placing of the bullet, but even then, there would be check-ups and physical therapy and regular therapy, and absolutely no heavy lifting for the foreseeable future. Luckily for her, Gabrielle had a son who could life entire continents with a wave of a hand; heavy boxes weren’t a problem. 

David had clearly been shaken by the shooting. They talked about it occasionally, about what had happened in the during and the after. Gabrielle had told David that he needed a therapist, and David agreed. She hadn’t expected him to agree, but she wasn’t going to argue with him either, and the next time they spoke, David was going through a list of mutant-friendly therapists, crossing out the ones that he didn’t like the look of. 

His first session had been last week. Gabrielle has asked him how it went, and David had said “Fine,” and hadn’t said anything else, even though he’d clearly been crying. 

She didn’t push it. He would talk about what he wanted to talk about in his own way and in his own time. 

*

Gabrielle found David sitting at the kitchen table, sketching on a spare bit of paper. She glanced at the drawing. It was of a girl about David’s age with dark hair, wearing a blindfold. 

“That’s her, isn’t it?” asked Gabrielle. “Your girlfriend.” 

David covered the drawing with one hand. “Yeah.” 

Gabrielle eased herself into a chair. “What’s she like?” 

At first, David didn’t reply, as he considered what to say. “She’s nice,” He began. “Kind, interesting. Smart. Funny. Awkward, sometimes, but I don’t mind that, I mean, _I’m_ awkward sometimes. We suit each other. She’s basically the only person who I’m comfortable with having in my mind. And pretty,” he said, gesturing to the drawing, “Obviously.” 

“Is the blindfold meant to be symbolic?” 

“No, she – she doesn’t have eyes. It’s her secondary mutation. She’s kind of self-conscious about it, so she wears the blindfold to cover it up. She’s technically blind, but she can use her powers to see.” 

“Oh.” Gabrielle wondered how to break her piece of news, then decided that David would prefer straightforward honesty. “Your father emailed me today. He asked me some questions about you.” 

Instantly, David tensed up. “I’m not going back there, mum.” 

“You weren’t happy.” David had never gone into specifics, but it was blatantly obvious that he didn’t like to think back of his memories of living in Genosha. 

“I… I thought he wanted me there. I thought he finally wanted me to live with him. But after I moved in, he basically ignored me. And don’t get me wrong, being royalty had perks. Huge bedroom. Balcony. Wardrobe full of designer clothes that I never wore. The best seats in the synagogue, everything. But none of that mattered, because I wasn’t wanted. I mean, he didn’t even invite me to the wedding, for fuck’s sake! When I told him that I had a girlfriend, he made all these assumptions about how our relationship couldn’t possibly be healthy, about how we couldn’t properly have feelings for each other just because I’m mentally ill. And I figured, if he was always going to treat me like that because I’m insane, then he’s was never going to treat me like a proper son, because I’m always going to be like this. So I left.” 

“Should I tell Charles that you’re not ready to talk to him yet?” 

“Yeah, do that.” 

“I was surprised to find out that you still went to the synagogue,” said Gabrielle. 

He frowned. “Mum, I’ve been going with you every Saturday since I started living here.” 

“Yes, but… I was shot. People do kind things for people who have been shot. I wasn’t sure how much you actually wanted to be there.” 

“I… see.” He bit his lip, considering. “I never knew my grandparents. I mean, you and dad had me so late, and even before then…” 

“Bergen-Belsen,” said Gabrielle, naming the concentration camp where her parents had been carted off to die. 

“Exactly. And, well, my parents didn’t stick around either, did they?” He shot her a small smile which told her that he was about halfway to forgiving her for Muir Island. “So, some days it felt like being Jewish was the only heritage I had, so I held onto it.” 

For a moment, Gabrielle tried to imagine what it had been like for David, growing up almost completely cut-off from any kind of family. It wasn’t easy. 

After her parents had been taken to Bergen-Belsen, Gabrielle had still had her grandmother looking after her, until they were captured and sent to Dachau. Her grandmother hadn’t lasted long, but even then, she hadn’t been alone, surrounded by her starving people as they huddled together for warmth. Many of the adults had done their best to protect the children. 

Past that, things got a little fuzzy, then her memories sharpened after the treatments at the asylum in Israel started to work. It had been one of the few mental health facilities of the time that actually cared about their patients. The doctors had been delighted with her response to the medication, and had pulled out all the stops to make sure that it kept working. 

And then university, studying law, where she’d had classmates and friends and a couple of boyfriends. Then her career as a lawyer, with friends and colleagues and Charles, and after that had come David and Daniel. 

Even after her whole family was dead, she hadn’t been alone. But David had been alone for most of his life, locked away in padded cells. He hadn’t even had friends. 

The guilt came then, as she’d known it would. 

Gabrielle sighed, and found herself saying, “My mother was Romani. She met my father when her people stopped at the outskirts of his town, and she decided that she wanted to stay…” 

*

The fact that David wasn’t there for Passover was when it properly sunk in for Lorna that he wasn’t coming back.

And as soon as she realised that, she felt stupid. Of course he wasn’t coming back. Once David made a decision, he stuck by it. It was one of the things she liked about him. 

She’d felt awful when she found out that he’d run away. If she hadn’t been called away for some stupid, false-alarm security breach then she would have been there for the dinner when David had left. 

But she hadn’t been there, and her little brother had decided that his family wasn’t worth sticking around for. 

Lorna sort-of blamed herself for that, too. Oh, there was no doubt that her dad and Charles had a hand in it, but when David had moved to Genosha, Lorna had decided that she wanted to get to know him better. And then she just… hadn’t. 

Ugh, she’d been such a shitty big sister. She wished she could call him up and say sorry, but David had destroyed his phone, and she couldn’t think of any other way of reaching him. She didn’t like the idea of calling up the Israeli embassy in London and asking them if they would kindly put her through to the ex-Prince of Genosha. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t go down well. 

There was a knock on her door. 

“Come in!” she called. 

Billy and Tommy came in, and Tommy carefully shut the door behind them. Billy was holding his phone. 

“We found her,” said Billy. 

“Found who?” 

“David’s girlfriend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I really hated the Legion TV show. But one thing it did introduce was Romani Gabrielle Haller. Because of that, I’ve used David’s Roma heritage as something that he was unaware of until now, when he’s talking with his mother and getting to know both himself and his family better.


	7. Family, Part 1

“I was going through some of my old Instagram posts when I found this,” said Billy, and he showed Lorna a video on his phone. It was from the New Year’s party that he’d thrown with the Young Avengers. 

“Uh,” said Lorna, “How does a video of you snogging your boyfriend tell me who David’s mystery girlfriend is?” 

“Look in the corner,” said Tommy. “Top right of the screen.” 

Lorna watched the video again, and sure enough, Billy and Teddy weren’t the only couple celebrating the stroke of midnight. In the corner of the screen, a dark-haired girl wearing a yellow dress and a matching blindfold pulled David in for a very intense kiss. 

“Okay,” said Lorna, “Who is she?” 

“Well, according to David – I mean Prodigy David, you know, David Alleyne?” Was it Lorna’s imagination, or was Tommy blushing? She filed that thought away for future investigation. “Anyway, according to him, her name’s Ruth, and she goes to Charles’ school.” 

“Okay,” said Lorna. “So, assuming that they’re still together – which is likely, because David seemed, like, super into her – she could get us a way of contacting David. Good work, you two.” 

Billy rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, we wanted to make up for… at the dinner, Grandad and Charles were just tearing into him, and we didn’t do anything.” 

“We should’ve said something,” said Tommy. 

“Well,” said Lorna, “Let’s find out more about this girl.” 

*

Ruth Aldine was… not what Lorna had expected. 

She would be the first to admit that she’d already formed a picture of what David’s girlfriend would look like in her mind. She’d expected her to be a punk like David: dyed hair, maybe a few piercings. A leather jacket at the minimum. But after a few minutes scrolling through her Facebook profile, and a few more minutes hacking into her school records, Lorna had to admit that Ruth was – there was no other word for it – a nerd. David was dating a girl who had never handed homework in late even once, and didn’t have a single detention to her name. 

“Are we sure we have the right girl?” asked Lorna. 

“Apart from the fact that she looks exactly like the girl that David’s kissing in the video? Yeah, we do.” said Tommy. 

“Then I guess we should go talk to her.” 

*

Ruth Aldine was _not_ what Lorna had expected. 

She was actually kind of scary, when you got down to it. 

They’d arrived at the school incognito on a Sunday afternoon, and had called Ruth over, and broached the subject that, maybe, she had a boyfriend, and, maybe, he was David Haller. 

Ruth had responded by suggesting that they go somewhere private. The middle of the woods in the school’s grounds, for example. 

They ended up in a clearing in the forest. Which was when Ruth started yelling at them. 

Some of her sentences were hard to understand because of her stammer, but it was clear that Ruth did _not_ approve of having her social media profiles and school record intensely scrutinised by her boyfriend’s ex-stepfamily. 

Lorna thought she might be going into shock. She just wasn’t used to being yelled at by a girl who was almost a decade younger than her and three inches shorter. 

“I mean, he’s still – pardon, yes – totally broken up over what happened to his mom, please.” Ruth continued. “And what, you want me to call him up because you feel bad? You should have – no – been there for him when he needed it.” 

“We want to say sorry,” said Lorna. 

*

The meeting was in an abandoned warehouse in an industrial area of Genosha’s capital city, because apparently the Maximoff-Dane family had inherited Erik Lehnsherr’s propensity for the dramatic. 

David felt like he was in a gritty noir TV show. The kind with sub-par writing and one-dimensional female characters. 

He entered the warehouse through a golden portal, to hide the fact that he’d thoroughly cased the place the evening before. 

“Huh,” he said. “Ruth said there would be three of you.” 

The younger set of twins and Lorna he’d expected. He hadn’t anticipated that Wanda and Pietro would be there as well. 

David squared his shoulders. “So what’s this about?” 

Tommy was the first to speak. “Look, that evening when you left – Grandad was being an asshole, and you, like, totally didn’t deserve the things he was saying about you. We should’ve backed you up. And we shouldn’t have just left you to be yelled at. We, uh, wanted to apologise.” 

“Not just about that,” added Billy. “The New Year’s party –” 

David raised an eyebrow. “You saw me there?” 

“No, I didn’t know that you were there until later. But the things is, we should have invited you.” 

“It was your party. If you didn’t want me there…” 

“No, that’s the worst part. I didn’t – inviting you didn’t even occur to us. We forgot about you. And we shouldn’t have, you’re family.” Looking at Billy, David could genuinely believe that he felt bad for not inviting David. It was entirely probable that Billy was a nicer person than he was. 

“Barely family. I mean, we were family for what, six months? Seven months?” 

“That’s still family,” said Pietro. “I mean, dad can be a dick from time to time. And when he is, we should all back each other up instead of leaving one person to take the shit.” 

“Exactly,” said Wanda. “We’re all here because we’re sorry. We should have said something that day, but we didn’t.” 

David looked at the only person who hadn’t spoken yet. “Not Lorna. You weren’t there, you don’t have anything to feel guilty about.” 

“You’re right,” she said. “I wasn’t.” She walked a few paces closer to him. “I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay? I mean, I heard about what happened to your mom.” 

“She’s fine. I’m – I don’t know how I feel about it. The bullet was meant for me, only we both moved, and… and I killed the shooter and the guy who paid him. Both of them. Didn’t even think about it, it was just instinct.” He looked around at the others, trying to judge their reactions. 

David swallowed. “Look, I’m not deliberately reading your minds or anything, but you all feel… I can sense how guilty you all feel about the fact that you never said anything while dad and Erik went off on their little ‘David shouldn’t have a girlfriend because he’s fucked-up in the head’ crusade, and I just want you to know that you don’t have to. We – I’ve not been close to any of you. Apart from Lorna, I don’t think I’ve even had a conversation with any of you. And that’s fine. I know that I make people uncomfortable and that a lot of people are scared of me. You don’t have to like me, and you don’t have to treat me like family.” 

“But we should,” said Wanda. “David, I’m your sister, but I never treated you like you were my brother. I didn’t say hello to you when you moved in. I never talked to you over dinner. The more I think about it, the worse I feel.” 

“Look, Wanda, the only thing worse than people not being nice to me is people being nice to me because they feel obliged, so please don’t…” All of a sudden, David felt very tired. “Just don’t do that.” 

“That’s not what this is,” said Pietro. “This is us trying to act like you’re part of the family. Because you are.” 

“Am I?” David paused. “That’s a genuine question, by the way. Most people wouldn’t want someone like me in their family.” 

Lorna hugged him. “Of course you are.” 

Normally David hated being hugged by anyone who wasn’t Ruth or one of his parents, but with Lorna it actually felt okay. 

After the hug, he smoothed down his shirt and said, “I mean, it’s kind of my fault too. I know that I’m not good with people. Never have been. But I should have still tried, y’know? Put in some effort. I mean, I’ve never had siblings or nephews or whatever before. It was always just me and my parents, and my parents were barely there.” 

“But you’re not angry with us?” asked Wanda. 

“No. I mean, I would’ve appreciated some backup against dad, but, to be honest, I didn’t really hold out much hope for it. And I don’t want to act like I’m the only person here with issues. I know that Billy has anxiety, I know that Lorna’s bipolar, I know that you have depression. But…” David had to admit that his next sentence sounded completely pathetic. “But for the most part, people still treat you like you’re normal. I don’t know what that’s like. I mean, it’s the first thing that everyone learns about me: David Haller, DID. Back in the palace, whenever I said hi to the maid who cleaned my room, she flinched. Nobody wants to hang out with a crazy person. Or almost nobody, at least.” 

“We should change that,” said Pietro. Nobody spoke for a moment, until he said. “Uh, could someone please suggest a good family bonding activity? Because I for one do not have any ideas.” 

“I have an idea,” said Wanda. 

*

David relaxed back in his chair. “Okay, this was a fucking amazing idea.” 

Wanda sipped her cocktail. “I know, right? Spa days are not to be underrated.” 

“I’ve never done this before.” 

“I can tell.” 

“I don’t know what they did to my hair, but it smells _so_ nice.” 

There was the sound of running feet, and Pietro and Tommy raced towards the swimming pool. Before they touched the water, David and Wanda both reached out their hands, freezing them in mid-air. 

“Dammit Wanda!” said Pietro. 

“Put us down!” complained Tommy. 

“No splashing,” said Wanda. “I just got my hair done, it looks perfect, and you are _not_ going to splash water all over me.” 

Wanda and David let them down into the pool slowly… and headfirst. Pietro and Tommy came up soaked and spluttering, and Lorna snapped a photo on her phone. “Oh, look at that, I have new profile pictures for both of you!” 

Pietro pushed a hank of sopping silver hair out of his eyes, laughing. “Lorna don’t you dare.” 

“Too late, I already changed it.” 

“I’m gonna throw your phone in the pool.” 

“This phone is a gift from Princess Shuri of Wakanda. It’s waterproof.” 

“Crap. My evil masterplan is ruined.” 

David snorted. “Well, there have been worse evil masterplans.” 

“A couple of grandad’s do spring to mind,” said Billy, sipping his strictly non-alcoholic pina colada. 

“You know, Erik was planning to kill me once,” said David. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, it’s kind of a long story involving the Paris catacombs, medieval weaponry, and a truly disturbing amount of necromancy. I don’t hold it against him too much.” 

Lorna frowned. “What amount of necromancy wouldn’t be disturbing?” 

“I spent a few weeks hanging out with Illyana Rasputin in a pocket dimension. You get used to a certain amount of magic-y stuff around her.” 

David sipped his lemonade. Things felt… good. Wanda had booked out the spa for the day, and for once it actually felt like he was part of the family. Or at least, Pietro had tackled him into the pool earlier, and that had felt fairly brotherly. 

“I have an announcement to make,” said Lorna. 

“Huh?” said Pietro, letting Tommy up from where he’d been shoving his nephew’s head underwater. 

“I deleted Alex’s number from my phone. I am never dating him again.” 

Wanda let out an audible sigh of relief. 

Pietro said, “Finally!” 

David said, “Thank fuck.” 

“What?” asked Lorna, “Our relationship didn’t work, but it wasn’t that much of a disaster.” 

“Matter of opinion, Auntie Lorna,” said Billy, sipping his drink. 

*

“What is the meaning of this?” snapped Erik, holding up the newspaper. 

“Wow,” said Pietro, “That is a great photo of me. Look at my hair…” 

“Don’t play dumb,” said his father, “You know what I’m asking about. You all do.” 

He pointed to the figure in the centre of the image: David Haller, sitting at the same table as Wanda, Pietro, Lorna, Billy, and Tommy, captured mid-laugh. The caption on the photo read: _‘Getting the Family Back Together?’_

“What on earth were you thinking?” 

Wanda’s eyes were brown where her father’s were grey, but they had the same steely gaze. “You shouldn’t be interrogating us about spending the day with our brother.” 

“David made it very clear that he doesn’t want to be part of this family.” 

“No, he made it clear that this family hadn’t made him feel welcome. Yesterday, we made up for it. We’re planning another family get-together next week.” 

“You should have consulted me before you met with him.” 

Wanda stared him down. “We don’t need to ask permission to spend time with him.” 

“Besides,” said Lorna, “What are you going to do about it? Make a public statement condemning the fact that your kids are hanging out with your husband’s son?” 

*

“So how was it?” asked Ruth. Today’s date night involved pizza and V for Vendetta. David was still coming to terms with the fact that he was in love with a girl who liked pineapple on pizza. 

“Pretty good. It’s just a bit of a shame that it took us so long to try and be family, is all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was slightly inspired by Jean Grey issue 7, which was basically ‘Jean and Wanda do self-care’. Definitely one of the more wholesome X-Men comic books.
> 
> David’s mention of the Paris catacombs/medieval weaponry/necromancy is a reference to the Legion Quest comics, where Magneto was prepared to kill David as a last resort. David spent some time in Limbo with Illyana Rasputin when she persuaded him to kill the Elder Gods for her.


	8. Family, Part 2

The knock at Charles’ office door was polite, the mind outside it carefully shielded. 

He wasn’t often at the school anymore. So much of his time was taken up by state business that he’d officially handed the title of head teacher over to Kitty Pryde, but he still liked to visit at least once a week, and Kitty preferred to use a different office anyway. 

“Come in,” he called. 

Ruth Aldine let herself in and closed the door carefully behind her. 

“What is it, Ruth?” 

As a rule, Charles didn’t have favourite students, but Ruth was firmly in the category of ‘never makes trouble, always hands in homework’, so he was willing to make time for her. 

She took a few nervous steps towards his desk, but didn’t sit in either of the chairs in front of it. Ruth swallowed, then spoke. “David misses you.” 

“What?” Her statement had been so unexpected that he was unable to say anything more coherent. 

“He – yes – he doesn’t say outright that he misses you, sorry, please, but I can tell.” 

Pieces started to slot themselves together in Charles’ mind. He didn’t know Ruth very well, but Ororo had mentioned that somebody sent her roses on Valentine’s Day. “You’re her,” he breathed, “You’re David’s girlfriend.” 

*

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” his father said as David stood in front of him in one of the palace’s many drawing rooms, and fiercely resisted the urge to teleport to Japan. 

“It had to be done,” he replied. 

“I think I ought to start with an apology,” said Charles. “I think I have a lot I should apologise for.” 

“I think you probably do,” said David flatly. 

His father looked nervous, which was unusual for him. David was used to Charles being almost completely unflappable. “I’m sorry for the way I reacted when you told me that you were in a relationship. I made some very unfair assumptions about your ability to engage in something like that, and it was wrong of me. I should have given you a chance.” 

“You should have.” 

His father nodded. “I was trying to protect you. I thought – oh, I must have run through about five different worst-case scenarios. The idea of you being manipulated by someone you thought loved you… having your love story splashed across the tabloids… Or something going wrong with the relationship and threatening your mental health. I couldn’t bear to see you hurt like that. You’re still so young. But even then, I shouldn’t have tried to protect you like that. You’re a better judge of character than I gave you credit for.” A pause. “And Ruth is a very lovely girl.” 

“I didn’t come here to talk about Ruth.” Just because she’d persuaded him to agree to this meeting didn’t mean that David was going to open up about his feelings about her right away. 

“I know you didn’t. The disagreement we had about your relationship was far from the only problem.” His father looked up at him. “David, I am very sorry for the way in which I brought you into this family. Genosha was a new environment for you, and you needed support which I didn’t provide. I thought I was giving you space, but instead I was leaving you on your own, and because I wasn’t around I didn’t see how unhappy that made you.” 

“If you didn’t want to talk to me…” David began. 

Was that pain in his father’s eyes? “But I did. I did very much, of course I did, you’re my son.” 

“You didn’t invite me to the wedding.” They were going to have to talk about it at some point. It might as well be now. 

His father’s shoulders slumped. “The wedding, yes. You have no idea how ashamed I feel… I had a reason but in retrospect it looks so feeble. I – you said that you thought I hated Erik, and I understand why that would be. We’d spent so long fighting each other. After Genosha was formed and Erik was elected king, he proposed to me. We married the same day with barely any preparations and only a slight amount of ceremony. I didn’t want to wait any longer because, well, I thought that after everything we’d been through, if I’d waited even another day then something would have come up and I wouldn’t have been able to have him. But I should have waited. I should have trusted that we would stay together long enough for a proper wedding. Or I should have had a teleporter bring you over. You should have been there, David. You should have been the best man.” 

“Don’t over-exaggerate, dad. Scott Summers would have been your best man.” 

Charles sighed. “Scott is a colleague and a friend, but you’re my son.” He paused. “I won’t ask your forgiveness, because I know how difficult that is for you. All I can say is how sorry I am, and how much I missed you.” 

David’s voice came out slightly hoarse. “I missed you too. When you said you wanted me to come live in Genosha, I thought it meant that we’d be getting closer, getting to know each other better. And then that – didn’t happen.” 

“But you did want to live in Genosha?” 

“Of course I did, you’re my father. Besides, I didn’t want to stay at the clinic forever. You know that getting my brain to a stable place was something that I’d always wanted. Achieving it – more or less – was always going to mean leaving institutions behind.” 

“Do you think you could give me another chance?” asked his father, and David had never once considered that his father might want his approval, but he apparently did. “Your room’s still empty. We can decorate it together, if you like. Or you can pick a new one, god knows there’s plenty to choose from in the palace.” 

“You still want me to live with you, then? I mean, this has definitely been a – a conversation, but…” David slumped. “I guess I always feel like you’re ashamed of me. Because of how I am.” 

“David, I could never be ashamed of you. You have to live with a condition which can be incredibly debilitating, but you’ve managed to improve your mental health far beyond what anyone expected. I’m proud of you.” 

David started crying, wishing that he wasn’t, hating the stinging in his eyes. His father pushed himself forward, offering comfort, and David waved him away, wiping his eyes. “It’s not – not just that,” he choked out. “I killed two people. I know that someone’s probably told you, and I know how you feel about killing. I killed. Two people.” 

“In self-defence,” his father said softly. 

“It’s always self-defence with me, isn’t it?” said David. “Self-defence with President fucking Abdi and his hired gun. Self-defence against the bastards who shot Daniel.” 

“I didn’t know you remembered that,” said Charles quietly. 

“It was the worst day of my life. The memories are so tied up in trauma that I can barely access them, but they’re still there.” 

“I won’t ask if you’re alright,” said Charles, “Because you’re clearly still traumatised, and I know you don’t like it when people state the obvious. Gabrielle told me that you’re seeing a therapist, which is good, but if you ever want to talk about it with me…” 

“Okay,” said David. “I guess – I mean I’m Charles Xavier’s son. Son of the world’s most famous pacifist and I –” 

“It wasn’t your fault. There are far worse reasons to take a life.” 

“Like what?” 

“I had a sister.” 

“ _What_?” snapped David. 

His father nodded, his mind tinged with guilt, and David knew that whatever had happened to this aunt he’d never known had not been good. “Her name was Cassandra. We were twins. She was a telepath, like me. One day when we were eleven, she used her powers to kill one of the maids, just because she could. Our father didn’t understand how Cassandra had done it, given that there wasn’t a mark on the body, but she wasn’t concealing what she’d done either. She was proud of it. In the end, I got into her head and shut off her powers permanently. Father had her institutionalised. She died when we were forty-five.” 

“Oh, this is such an awful thing to say,” Charles continued, “But when I first met you, I had this illogical fear that I’d passed on some of her into you.” 

David opened his mouth to reply, but his father raised a hand, stopping him. 

“I know that’s not how your condition came to be,” said Charles. “But I’d just been introduced to my ten-year-old son, and his mind was in so much pain, so scattered, and I was trying to find a reason other than trauma. Because if there was a reason, then perhaps there was a way to help you.” 

“To fix me,” said David, feeling faintly sick. 

“I will admit,” said Charles, “That when I first met you on Muir Island, I wanted to find a way to cure you. For you to live a normal life. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been far too distant with you. I think maybe I was waiting for you to achieve something that isn’t possible, something that isn’t reasonable for me to expect of you. It was very wrong of me, and I’m sorry. Like I said before, I won’t ask you to forgive me, but I also don’t want to lose you. These past months with you gone… the worst thing is how little difference it makes to my day. I go about my business and nothing’s different, except that everything is different because my son isn’t there.” 

“You want me to come back to Genosha,” David said, not quite believing it. 

“Yes.” Charles looked up at him. “Is there anything I can do to convince you to live with me again? Things would be different than before, I’ll try harder, I’ll be there for you, I promise.” 

“I want to come back,” said David, meaning it. 

Charles’ smile was small and hopeful. “You do?” 

“Yeah. But not for the whole time. I want to spend time with mum as well. She’s been trying really hard, and we’ve actually got to a place where she – where it feels like she’s my mother, which hasn’t happened in a long time.” 

“Do you ever wish that I was still with Gabrielle?” was his father’s next question. 

“I…” David ran a hand through his hair. When he was younger, the answer to that question would have been a definitive ‘yes’, but that was only because when he was younger he’d assumed that if his parents were together then they’d both stick around to raise him. Now that he was older, he doubted that would have been the case. “I used to. Not anymore. It’s just that you never, ever talk about her. Some days it feels like I came from nothing, which, in a way, I did.” 

“David…” 

“What? I did. I wasn’t planned, and mum had no idea what she was getting into, keeping me. She thought she’d get a normal kid, and instead she got someone who could crack the planet in two just by thinking about it.” 

His father took his hand. “David, she never regretted having you. Not once.” 

“And you? You’re allowed to say that you didn’t want me at first. I’m not exactly what Professor X’s son should be like. Probably never will be.” 

“I thanked her,” said Charles. 

“Thanked who?” 

“Your mother. After I’d found out about you, as soon as we were alone, I thanked her. For giving me you. And if I’d know what you’d grow up to be, I’d have thanked her more.” 

It was too much. It had been too much for a while now. The next thing David knew, he was sobbing into his father’s shoulder. He relaxed, and allowed himself to be held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charles thanking Gabrielle for the existence of David is X-Men Legacy comics canon.
> 
> Bet you didn’t expect me to bring Cassandra Nova into this story, huh? Well I did. Sometimes I think about the fact that certain mental illnesses are genetic, and what that means. Often I feel disgusted when people spew the eugenicist argument that mentally ill people shouldn’t have children because they might pass on their condition. As far as I know from research, DID is not genetic, but that doesn’t change the fact that David’s family has a history of mental illness. This brings up two things: firstly, there’s a degree of trauma from being mentally ill/having mentally unstable close relatives, but secondly it means that David’s parents are able to understand what he’s going through, and should be able to support him, now that they’re making an effort.
> 
> Which gets to the main point of this story. I don’t often write fics with the intent of an underlying message, but this time there is one. This story is about the way that mentally ill people are treated. We have Charles at the start, keeping his distance under the guise of ‘help’ when in fact it’s neglect. We have Charles and Erik being patronising to David about his capability to be in a healthy romantic relationship (I am reminded of a case I read where two mentally ill people were allowed to marry, but were not permitted to consummate their relationship because they were deemed incapable of offering informed consent. Surely if they were mentally capable of consenting to marriage, then they would also be able to consent to sleeping together?) We also have Wanda, Pietro, Tommy, and Billy, and to a lesser extent Lorna, all staying away from David because the nature of his condition is intimidating for them.
> 
> Later on, we have Pete Wisdom, who’s already made up his mind about David’s mental illness with all the bigotry that comes with it. We also have Gabrielle Haller, a mentally ill woman who can control it, talking to her son, who can’t cope with his condition nearly as easily, and they’re discussing their various experiences in mental institutions (beneficial for Gabrielle and traumatising for David). In the end, we get the conclusion, with amends being made and David re-joining both the families he’d felt cast out from now that they’ve shown they’ll properly accept him.
> 
> So we get to the point of this story: It doesn’t matter why someone is mentally ill; what matters is that they’re still treated with kindness and respect.


	9. Family, Part 3

There were new pictures on the walls of David’s bedroom. Erik spotted a poster from a British punk band and a painting that he was pretty sure David had done himself. 

So there was something that Erik and David had in common: they were both artists. Erik had never pursued his sketching with much intent, but he had skill and it relaxed him to sit down and draw from time to time. David, it seemed, preferred oils, but there was a half-finished pencil drawing on his desk when Erik walked in, so maybe sketching was something that they could bond over. Now that Erik had actually decided to try and bond with David over something. 

He stopped in the doorway. “May I come in?” 

David was standing facing him; likely the boy had sensed his mind coming and stopped whatever he’d been doing well before Erik opened the door. “Sure.” 

Erik shut the door behind him. “I came to apologise for my behaviour at the dinner before you left. It was unfair to you and I should have shown more empathy.” 

“Dad’s making you apologise, isn’t he?” 

Erik considered his words carefully before he spoke next. “I… will admit that Charles encouraged me to make amends, but I had already decided to have this conversation with you. I wasn’t a proper stepfather to you, and I wish to change that.” A pause. “I’d also like to apologise for what happened between us in Paris when you were fifteen.” 

“When you were planning to kill me in case I lost control of my alters and started hurting people?” 

“Yes. I shouldn’t have – I failed to recognise the effort you put in to keeping us all alive on that mission. You were doing exceptionally well for someone so young.” 

“Okay. Fine.” 

A silence that threatened to become awkward. “Charles told me that you want to become more politically active.” 

David shrugged. “I’m already politically active. But there’s things that I could be doing as a prince that I can’t do as a civilian.” 

“We’ve agreed to allow you to sit in on council meetings once you come of age.” 

At this, David genuinely smiled. Erik was surprised by the warm feeling he got in his chest at the sight of it. Or perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. David was his stepson, Charles’ son. It was time that Erik learned to love him like his own. Time to put in some damn effort. 

“Seriously?” said David. 

“Yes.” 

“Okay,” he said, “But I think there’s some things we could start with now. I think Genosha should have a trade sanction against Stark tech.” 

“What?” It was so unexpected that Erik didn’t say anything else. 

David took Erik’s question as a reason to continue. “I’m sure you’re well aware of Tony Stark’s repeated campaigning to introduce compulsory mutant registration in the US. As the son of a Holocaust survivor speaking to a Holocaust survivor… we both know where registration could lead. Besides, Genosha already has a trade agreement with Wakanda. Whatever Stark Industries does, the Wakandans were probably doing it at least a decade earlier in a way that’s cheaper, more ethical, and more environmentally friendly. Our relations with Wakanda are excellent; we don’t need Stark tech. And it sends a message: Genosha is still a newly-formed nation, built on the principles of mutant rights. A trade embargo against someone like Tony Stark shows that we’re willing to stand up for those principles.” 

“You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into that,” said Erik, already thinking about the possibilities of putting such a measure into place, “But we might need a stronger reason than ideological differences.” 

“I have a better reason,” said David, taking a file out of his desk drawer. “Just pretend that you don’t know me for a second.” 

“Why –” 

David thrust the file into Erik’s hands. “Well look at that, Erik. An anonymous source just gave you a file on a highly unethical piece of technology made by Tony Stark.” 

Erik flicked through the file. “Something called EDITH?” 

“Yeah. And once you get into the details of what it does… it can hack into nearly anything in its proximity, and it links up to Stark Industries satellites to control an arsenal of missiles and drones. So it’s both a security risk and a public safety risk. Fucking horrendous, if you ask me.” 

“Stark Industries is developing this? How did you get hold of it?” 

David gave a lopsided smile. “I’m not telling you that. You’re a king, you need plausible deniability. But I will say that there’s no way to trace how I got my hands on this file, so you don’t need to worry. The thing that’s really going to piss off the Americans is that Stark has already built EDITH.” He brought up a picture of Tony Stark on his phone. “See those glasses? That’s EDITH.” 

“Tony Stark is walking around wearing a pair of glasses that can hack into people’s phones and set an army of drones on anyone he likes.” Erik looked down at the file in his hands. “Does the US government know?” 

David grinned. “Nope.” 

“Oh, they won’t be happy to hear about this. Not one bit.” 

“I know.” 

Erik flicked through the file again and looked up at David. “Do you often do things like this? I heard what you did with the Aquirians…” 

His stepson shrugged. “I like making the world a better place. And that often involves bringing down those who’ve decided to operate above morality. Like Abdi. Like Stark.” 

So maybe painting wasn’t the only thing Erik could bond with David over. He held up the file. “David, the next time you have something like this?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Bring it straight to me.” 

“Well, I may choose to deal with it myself, but if it’s something that I think you’ll want to deal with personally… why not?” A pause. “Oh, and once we announce this, there’s a chance that Tony Stark might hop in an Iron Man suit and fly over to Genosha to yell at us. It may be that he’ll pause long enough to build one with non-magnetic components, in which case I can deal with him, or Wanda or Billy or someone, but if he doesn’t, and you or Lorna go up against him… I would really like to watch that.” 

“I’ll keep it in mind.” 

Erik walked over to the door, but stopped before he let himself out. “David?” 

“Yes?” 

“Billy will be bringing Teddy over for dinner on Sunday. I wondered if you might want to bring Ruth and introduce her to us properly.” 

“I’ll ask her if she’s free.” 

“Very well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erik: “How on earth am I going to relate to my stepson? We both draw, can we bond over that?”  
> David: “Here’s a file I stole that we can use to further the cause of mutant rights.”  
> Erik, realising that his stepson is very much into social justice: *sigh of relief*
> 
> EDITH is morally repugnant and I can’t believe that the movies tried to portray it as something a hero would use.
> 
> Also, confession time: While I was writing this, my laptop crashed and I lost everything except the first two-and-a-half chapters. What I’ve managed to recreate isn’t quite at the same standard as my original version, but hopefully it’s still good.


End file.
